THE housing service provided by the City of Edinburgh Council has been rated as the best in Scotland.
Says a spokesperson: “The top accolade has been revealed after The Scottish Housing Regulator carried out an inspection of the services earlier this year.
“The Council was awarded an ‘A’ grade for Housing Management and a ‘B’ grade for Asset Management and Repairs.
“An ‘A’ grade for Homelessness had previously been awarded giving the Council an ‘AAB’ grading.”
In the report, the Regulator said the Council had ‘major strengths in the delivery of its services’ such as
- ‘strong strategic planning and performance management framework’
- ‘demonstrates continuous improvements against its objectives over a number of years’
- ‘its approach to gathering service user feedback is excellent’
The Regulator’s team of Inspectors visited the Council between March 8 and 19, 2010 to assess the housing services.
As part of the assessment the inspectors spoke to tenants, staff, elected members, partner organisations as well as testing at first hand how well services were being delivered by visiting homes and local areas.
Councillor Paul Edie, housing leader of the City of Edinburgh Council, said:
“These gradings are thoroughly deserved and our excellent staff should be congratulated for this terrific achievement.
“The Regulators assessment can be added to a number of other important results that SFC has achieved: The number of tenants evicted from their homes is at a record low, homelessness has fallen for the fourth year running in spite of the dire economic circumstances and work is due to start on the first new Council homes for a generation.
“We are committed to providing tenants in Edinburgh with excellent housing services and here is independent proof that we are meeting that goal.”
Cathy King, head of Housing at the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “This report is testament to all the hard work and dedication shown by everyone in our housing services to achieve the best results for our tenants.
“The Regulator highlighted our strong customer and performance ethos and our willingness to accept criticism and act upon it. We won’t rest on our laurels either as a full action programme will be prepared to ensure we learn as much as possible from this inspection.”
Notes to editors
1. Inspections are carried out by the Scottish Housing regulator under section 72 Housing (Scotland) Act 2001.
2. The two key questions they look for answers to are: How well is the City of Edinburgh Council delivering its services? Is the City of Edinburgh Council managed for improvement?
3. Until now, West Lothian Council had the best inspection result with two ‘A’s and a ‘C’. The most common grade for all three service areas is ‘C’. For Homelessness Edinburgh is still the first and only ‘A’ grade council, we are amongst the 14 per cent of councils who got an ‘A’ for housing management and the 32 per cent who got a ‘B’ or better for asset management and repairs.
The highest of any of the 32 local authorities in the country: www.scottishhousingregulator.co.uk.
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Contact: Laura Varney
Phone: 0131 529 4452
Email: laura.varney@edinburgh.gov.uk
Website: http://www.
